


Of Ships and Cutlasses

by elusetta



Category: Far Cry (Video Games), Far Cry 5
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pirate, F/F, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, kind of a mess, the rarepair of my dreams yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-17 06:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17555297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elusetta/pseuds/elusetta
Summary: The first mate of the Divine Lamb may or may not be in love with the captain.





	Of Ships and Cutlasses

**Author's Note:**

> *shows up after being gone for a month, drinking a smoothie* whats up everyone i made a pirate au

The cutlass on Hudson's hip was as comforting as an old friend, and the sea wind at her cheek an old comfort that had been there, present, always listening, since her childhood. Yet still, there was a delicate sort of darkness that lingered in the depths of her mind, reminding her of dark rooms and low ceilings and cold steel against her skin. Reminding her that this was still new.

Although it wasn't. This was new in the sense that it was known to her once again, after weeks of being imprisoned by the guards. She had forgotten it- well, not quite; she could never truly forget the only thing she admitted to loving. This ship was her home. The ocean past it was her world. And in the grand scheme of things, that was really all that mattered.

A week had passed since her escape. She could never have done it without help. She hadn't intended on it, until...

Until...

The salted breeze carried a familiar presence with it. Hudson turned and met the eyes of Grace.

"How are you holding up?" Grace asked softly, her eyes bearing a dark concern along with the sort of wariness one would expect from a hunter approaching a wolf.

Hudson smiled tightly.

That was her contradiction, right there. The captain of the Divine Lamb, Grace Armstrong, soldier turned pirate waging war against the Eden fleet. Hudson always claimed that her home was in the sea, and the sea alone, but Grace was her rebuttal. How could she claim that this ship was her home, that the life of the voyaging adventuress was all that mattered to her, when the woman who had made it so was standing next to her?

Grace had seen her, the city guard who had let heroics get a little bit too deep into her head. Grace had helped her escape Joseph when he had captured her the first time. Grace had given her the means and motivation to keep fighting. Grace had given her a home.

"I'm okay," Hudson replied. "I will be, I mean. John didn't do much to me."

"Scare tactics," Grace muttered. "That man's a fucking coward."

Hudson laughed and ran her finger along the edge of her blade, trying to convince herself that she had nothing to be scared of. "He's a coward, but he's ruthless."

Grace must have seen the past in Hudson's eyes again, because she changed her tone and subject, the care in her voice the same as it had been when she had first recovered Hudson out of the Affirmation. "If there's anything you need, you know I'm- I'm here."

Hudson didn't need anything. She wanted something, sure; she wanted Grace to come to her quarters every night, she wanted Grace to kiss her senseless right then and there, she wanted Grace to tell her everything would be the same as it had always been. But there was nothing that she needed.

"I'm okay," she said coolly, and Grace left it alone.

\--

The night was cold, and somehow, the interior of the room that Hudson had been lucky enough to acquire was even colder. They'd made port for the night in one of the only safe cities left: Fall's End. Mary May, the innkeeper and an old friend, was always willing to give her a place to stay; after all, Hudson had been the one who'd saved her and the inn from Eden all that time ago. Mary May hadn't exactly approved of the shift in career when Hudson had first joined Grace at the helm of the Divine Lamb, but she had understood. She always understood. That was one of the reasons that Hudson liked her so much.

So when Hudson had come into the inn, more distant than usual, with a cold look on her face, Mary May hadn't really asked any questions. She'd just ushered her upstairs and told her what they'd be having for dinner that night.

Frankly, the Divine Lamb was beginning to feel like an emotional deathtrap. Hudson spent every day either tortured by the memories she pretended didn't bother her at all, or being menaced by the thoughts of a future that would never come. A future that simply wasn't in the cards, no matter which way she spun it. A future with Grace.

Hudson breathed out, spreading her fingers in the air above her face and watching the light flicker around them. Wasn't quite nightfall yet, but it would be soon. And in a couple of days, the ship would depart once again, Grace standing strong at the prow.

Hudson wouldn't be on it.

A drop of unhappiness flickered in Hudson's chest. But she'd never been one to second-guess herself. This was what she needed. She'd rejoin the guard force of the cities, go back to her everyday life of patrolling. Make up some crazy story to tell the people who had once been her friends. She'd tell them she'd gotten kidnapped, put into a boat full of pirates. Pirates like the Black Huntress, scarred and burned and brusque as the winter itself. Pirates like the woman who went only by the name of Rook, explosive and passionate and everything Hudson could ever ask for in a friend. She'd tell them that she had found herself in a life of adventures that had passed the threshold of her wildest dreams. She'd tell them she'd found life- a life she wanted.

She'd tell them that she'd loved and left a pirate queen.

Wouldn't they get a kick out of that?

Hudson startled back into reality at the sound of Mary May's knock on her door. "Dinner's ready," the innkeeper said, shutting the door as quickly as she'd opened it.

A cool breeze came through the window, and Hudson found that her cheeks were wet with tears. She wiped them off, sat up, and breathed in a shaky resolve that she knew would dissipate with the right words.

She couldn't do this. It wasn't pain, but it was strain, and her heart had never been ready to fight this hard.

\--

The Divine Lamb departed from the port to fanfare from the resistance. Brave people, the citizens of Fall's End. Brave enough to resist Eden when the rest of the kingdom was practically under its thumb already. Not to mention strong. It was no ordinary townsfolk that would fight tooth and nail to preserve a home that so many others had abandoned.

Hudson weighed her cutlass in her hand and wished that she could stave off the feeling in her stomach. A wild, violent urge to run clear across the town square and throw herself into Grace's arms, back into the life that she knew she had to let go.

What were her options? What was she meant to do, when every direction she turned to threw her headfirst into another dilemma? She couldn't go back to the ship; it had Grace, it had every reminder of the tortures she'd endured on the Affirmation. She couldn't stay here; she'd lose everything she loved.

But given the choice that wasn't a choice, given the choice that would rip her heart out one way or another, Hudson had always been better at loss. Lose everything, or risk everything and then lose everything. Why not take the more straightforward path to desolation?

She hadn't come out of the room above the inn for the whole night, and had remained there for the morning. Now, watching the ship, her ship, sail into the golden waters of the sun, Hudson knew that if she left the room, she wouldn't be able to restrain herself from pursuing it.

And then, from the wall of the inn, came a noise.

Something solid. Something heavy. Something that turned into a muttered swear word in a familiar voice.

Hudson stared at the window and tried to stop herself from investigating.

A shape appeared on the other side of the glass. Two eyes, familiar and beckoning as the eastern horizon; dark skin that was weathered by days of sun and salt; the cast of a smile on the lips.

Grace pulled herself through the window. "You're running a little bit late."

Hudson stared, and stared, and finally sat down in one heavy motion on the bed. A moment passed, and then another, and eventually, all she could manage to say was "Why?"

Grace sat next to her without a second thought. "I could ask you the same thing."

Hudson glared at her hands, and when Grace showed no signs of budging, let out a resigned breath. "I couldn't take it anymore."

"The ship?" Grace asked, shaking her head. "I knew John hurt you more than you said. I guess I just hoped-"

"Not the ship, Grace," Hudson said in a bitter laugh. "More like who was on it."

"You mean Jess? I know she's rough around the edges, and she hadn't been too nice to you, but-"

Hudson shook her head. Maybe, if she hadn't spent the past week boiling alive in her own emotions, this situation would've been funny. But, as the circumstances stood, it was nothing but a kick in the teeth. "You, Grace."

Grace sat in a stunned silence, and Hudson felt herself compelled to continue. "I guess... I guess it's a human thing, wanting what you can't have," she said reluctantly. "I mean, I always knew it was there, but now... I mean, after seeing you ride in to save me from that goddamned ship like some kind of hero... I just... I guess it was finally done stewing."

Grace found her voice. "What was?"

Willing her voice not to shake, Hudson brought it into the light. The reason, the impetus, the prison that had kept her. "My... feelings. For you. Feelings... for you." She coughed, not daring to look at the woman beside her. "I'd known for a while, but... since we're not on the ship anymore, and since I'm probably not coming back, I guess I can just say it." Her eyes darted around, seeking something to catch on. "I... I think I love you, Grace. At least, that's what I... that's what I'd guess this is, considering what it did to me."

After a pause that seemed to last forever, Grace responded. "And that made you leave?"

"Well, yeah," Hudson said, shifting on the bed. "I mean, I can't imagine it would be good for morale, having the first mate in love with the captain."

Grace's fingers tapped out a rhythm on the blankets. "And what about the captain being in love with the first mate?"

That, Hudson realized with a shock at the base of her spine, she hadn't considered.

"...Maybe that would be a different story," she finally answered.

Their hands found each other. Hudson's lips curved into a smile for the first time in such a long time.

"Wait- the ship!" She untangled her fingers from Grace's and darted to the window. The Divine Lamb was already disappearing into the sun. "Fuck, she's gone. We'll be here for hours. Maybe even days."

Grace grinned at her. "I can think of a couple ways to kill the time."


End file.
